The 2014 best-actor Oscar race is an overloaded bridge. When it comes down, somebody’s going to get hurt.

When the dust settled and nominations revealed, five actors were unscathed, and five were left in the rubble. This is good and bad: Good, because there’s a wealth of exemplary performances to watch. Bad, because they can’t all be honored by the Academy.

It also illustrates the great gender disparity in Hollywood - there’s a dearth of quality roles for actresses, compared to their male counterparts. There are no less than 10 worthy best actor nominees from 2013’s eligibility pool. Meanwhile, coming up with five names to fill the best actress category seems to be difficult – a trend over the past few years. It seems like the final spot was perfunctorily given to Meryl Streep, for “August: Osage County,” like it was in previous weak years, specifically, in ’09 for “Doubt” and ’10 for “Julie and Julia.”

But that’s a discussion for another day. Although it’s difficult to argue against the best actor contenders – Chiwetel Ejiofor for “12 Years a Slave,” Bruce Dern for “Nebraska,” Christian Bale for “American Hustle,” Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Matthew McConaughey for “Dallas Buyers Club” - I’ve come up with an five alternative nominees, listed in order of worthiness:

Tom Hanks, “Captain Phillips” – I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it until the world agrees with me: this is Hanks’ greatest performance. He has won the Oscar previously, for “Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump,” and that’s the only logical reason I can muster as to why the Academy didn’t nominate him this year. It feels short-sighted and political. It’s clear Hanks, prompted by director Paul Greengrass’ docudrama style, pushed himself into new territory as an actor. This is as raw and stripped-down as Hanks has ever been, and it’s a visceral gut-punch of a performance. After a decade of middling work – “Cloud Atlas,” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” “Larry Crowne,” “The Da Vinci Code” – Hanks has returned with a vengeance.

Oscar Isaac, “Inside Llewyn Davis” – I’d rather not regurgitate one of the major public-relations talking points about the Coen Bros.’ film, namely, how the cast performed all the music live on camera, with no overdubs. But it’s quite a remarkable achievement, especially for Isaac, who, playing the titular folk singer, learned a specific style of finger-picking for the guitar. But that’s just one detail of the performance, in which Isaac creates a character we love as an artist but don’t really like as a person – perhaps why he didn’t get the Academy votes, which would be short-sighted. He hits the perfect tone of comedio-dramatic exasperation, and cements his place among Barton Fink, Marge Gunderson and The Dude as a quintessential Coen character.

Robert Redford, “All Is Lost” – It’s strange that Redford’s two Oscars are honorary (for a storied career) and for directing (1980’s “Ordinary People”), and he has only one nomination as an actor (“The Sting”). It’s as if movie stardom and the trappings of extra-heightened fame conflicted with the quality of his work on the screen (Brad Pitt is his modern equivalent, and not just because they both share similarly weathered, handsome faces). As a solitary sailor struggling to survive crises on the high seas, Redford’s remarkable performance conveys confidence, concern, fear and despair with almost no dialogue. Apparently, not enough people saw the film due to a weak awards campaign, which is disappointing and, of course, short-sighted.

Michael B. Jordan, “Fruitvale Station” – How was Jordan’s snub short-sighted? The film was released early in 2013, and a majority of the nominees in major categories were part of the year-end blitz. Christian Bale’s paunch and combover was fresher in the minds of voters than Jordan’s assured and understated portrayal of real-life man Oscar Grant, who was unjustly shot and killed on a San Francisco subway platform in 2008. “Fruitvale” was among the year’s most emotionally powerful films, and a lot of it had to do with its star, who dialed back during moments of melodrama and gave a smart, introspective performance.

Idris Elba, “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” – It’s difficult to play an icon. It’s even harder to play Nelson Mandela, an icon among icons. The film itself is more of an encyclopedia entry on the man than a detailed character profile, but Elba carries his many, many scenes with great charisma. In a less robust field, he’d be nominated. It’s only a matter of time before a Tarantino or Scorsese or Fincher gives him a career role, and he grabs Oscar gold.

John Serba is film critic and entertainment reporter for MLive and The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jserba@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.